QUEENS - Mayor Bill de Blasio will move $100 million more
into the Build it Back, beef up staffing in the city's Housing Recovery Office,
and Sen. Charles Schumer said all storm victims who need their homes completely rebuilt -- regardless of income -- will be funded through the program at the same time.

"So many good people, so many struggling people,
hard-working people filled out reams of paperwork, went to hours and hours of
meetings, and still did not see a dime of money -- so many people are still in
that situation," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a library in the Rockaways.

That's and intolerable situation de Blasio said he'll look to rectify as soon as possible.

"This week the city of New York mailed out the first
reimbursement checks, and ground has been broken on the first home rebuilding
efforts - so finally, real action," he said.

He announced a new team to head up recovery, including new
Housing Recovery Office leader Amy Peterson, who has a background in
construction; and former MTA CEO Bill Goldstein to serve as a top advisor.

De Blasio said some programs for Sandy recovery were
working, and others weren't - and that the city would "reallocate more than $100
million from programs that currently aren't working well enough to programs
that rebuild people's homes."

And homeowners have long complained that only priority one
homeowners - those who have the least income - have been getting help. Schumer
said that would change: All homeowners will be funded at the same time.

"We want to help poor people. We also want to help a school
teacher, whose house is wiped out, or a cop and a firefighter who aren't rich,
and to say they had to wait and go to the back of the line didn't make any
sense," Schumer said. "We put enough money in the Sandy bill to fund every
homeowner and to do it flexibly and freely."

Check SILive.com throughout the day for more information on
the policy and personnel announcements regarding the city's rebuilding efforts.

This story has been updated to clarify that the city will help all homeowners regardless of priority level if they need a complete rebuild. Other homeowners will still be helped in priority order.